Comforters are a bedding material typically used as accessories to the primary sheets placed on a bed. In the current art, comforters are usually filled or manufactured to include batting or another material that provides both comfort and warmth or heat retention functions. However, the prior art fails to provide a bedding material that provides specialized zones of warmth in a comforter.
Featherbeds have various sewing constructions, including a channel arrangement which runs the entire length or the entire width, i.e. from side to side, of the featherbed. Channel construction can also include baffles, which are fabric elements which extend between the top and bottom fabric layers of the featherbed within the individual channels. In general, the channel/baffle construction divides the featherbed geometrically into a pattern of rectangles.
Other sewing constructions used with featherbeds include stitch sewing, which can include various sewn patterns, such as squares, diamonds or other shapes, and which individually connected to the top and bottom fabric layers of the featherbed, but are not connected together to form a continuous or repeating pattern.
Frame construction for featherbeds comprises channels sewn along the outer sides and across the top and/or bottom of the featherbed. Frame construction can be combined with sewn patterns, if desired.
There are disadvantages to all of the above constructions. Channel construction without baffles, as well as stitch sewing and frame sewing, allow the feathers within the featherbed to readily move or shift within the featherbed during typical use. Feathers ordinarily will shift to the top (head) and/or bottom (foot) of the featherbed. The featherbed will as a result look uneven, and its heat retention and comfort will be compromised. While this can be remedied by fluffing and physically shifting the featherbed, this is often inconvenient to do on a daily basis.
With the baffle construction, which is the most popular sewing construction for featherbeds, the baffle squares have an opening which runs along one edge of the baffle fabric wall inside the featherbed to allow for filling (blowing-in) of the individual squares. This is well-known in the industry. However, these “blow holes” in the baffles remain open after the filling is completed (there is no convenient way of closing the openings) and feathers will eventually migrate out of the individual squares into adjacent ones during use of the featherbed. This results in an uneven look and diminished performance, which cannot be corrected by fluffing because the feathers cannot be forced back into the openings in the squares from which they have migrated.
Therefore, what is needed in the art is an article that allows for the retention of high performance materials in pre-designated zones, while lowering the cost of manufacture.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,995 to Wu, herein incorporated by reference, provides a comforter with different warmth characteristics for two occupants with a light side, a warm side, and a transitional area between, with specific stacked layers. U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,125 to Owenby, herein incorporated by reference, details a comforter which provides a warmer lower portion than the upper portion. U.S. Pat. No. 3,508,284 to Marquette, herein incorporated by reference, describes a comforter using a one-weave manufacturing process with two halves of different warmth characteristics for two occupants. However, none of the cited prior art providing all the features of the disclosed invention.
Likewise U.S. Pat. No. 6,643,872 to Buswell, introduces two halves of dual warmth to form a bedding article. However, this invention does not provide a solution that eliminates the need to use the maximum amount of bedding material. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,961,970 to Pedersen, introduces various embodiments of channel construction. However, this prior art reference fails to describe the use of limited selections of material so as to reduce overall product manufacturing costs.